Our Supreme Task: How Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech Defined the Cold War Alliance [Paperback]

The year 1945 was a chaotic one, both for the world, of course, and for Winston Churchill. Communism was on the march and the people of Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Poland all found themselves in the grip of the Soviets. The Red Army occupied a large German territory, and the Kremlin was manipulating post-war food shortages, labor disputes, and social unrest in Greece, France, and Italy.

Having spent his wilderness years in the late 1930s warning of the dangers of diplomatic and military weakness and the growing menace of Nazism, in 1946 Churchill made a trip to Fulton, Missouri, to deliver a speech entitled The Sinews of Peace -- now known as the Iron Curtain Speech -- which served to fundamentally define the dangers of Soviet totalitarian Communism. This is the story of that pivotal speech and how it came to be given, and a portrait of the irrepressible man who delivered it.Philip Whiteis a writer and a lecturer at MidAmerica Nazarene University, and a regular contributor to The Historical Society publications. Philip's business writing has been recognized with awards from the Public Relations Society of America and the International Association of Business Communicators. He lives in Olathe, KS, with his wife and two sons.Kirkus Reviews
“The genesis, occasion and aftermath of what Winston Churchill unhesitatingly called ‘the most important speech of my career'…. White fully reproduces the address and reminds us that Churchill's call for increased Anglo-American solidarity in the face of Soviet aggression was not particularly well received… Today, we remember it as ‘one of the defining statements of the twentieth century.' White's at his best painting the small scenes in the background of the event: Churchill's construction of the speech as he sunbathed and painted, the whiskey and poker-fueled train ride with Truman to Missouri and especially the frantic preparations for the big l“(